One of the few times we see Hanners apparently channeling a degree of her mother. You have to think that's where she was taught the knowledge to immediately clam up and ask for a lawyer when something potentially incriminating comes around.

Hanners is the first character in the comic to lawyer up with Roko. Smart gal. Faye and Bubbles should be glad they aren't in the slammer.

I have to wonder about what Jeph is up to bringing Roko back after that storyline ended. Will this comic add "Wacky AI Police Procedural" to its genre list? (We already have "Slacker Soap Opera," "Fun with Robots," "Slackers in Orbit," "Rom-Com with Dom Mom," "Alcohol Dependency Drama," "AI Fight Club," and "Revenge of the Deux Ex Machina," plus others I've probably forgotten.)

Hanners is the first character in the comic to lawyer up with Roko. Smart gal. Faye and Bubbles should be glad they aren't in the slammer.

I have to wonder about what Jeph is up to bringing Roko back after that storyline ended. Will this comic add "Wacky AI Police Procedural" to its genre list? (We already have "Slacker Soap Opera," "Fun with Robots," "Slackers in Orbit," "Rom-Com with Dom Mom," "Alcohol Dependency Drama," "AI Fight Club," and "Revenge of the Deux Ex Machina," plus others I've probably forgotten.)

“I’m a private detective.”“Oh?” said Kate in surprise, and then looked puzzled.“Does that bother you?”“It’s just that I have a friend who plays the double bass.”“I see,” said Dirk.“Whenever people meet him and he’s struggling around with it, they all say the same thing, and it drives him crazy. They all say, ‘I bet you wished you played the piccolo.’ Nobody ever works out that that’s what everybody else says. I was just trying to work out if there was something that everybody would always say to a private detective so that I could avoid saying it.”“No. What happens is that everybody looks very shifty for a moment, and you got that very well.”

So, what am I saying? As a double bass player, I will leap to Roko's defense and suggest that she probably didn't provoke that reaction because she is "pathologically un-subtle."

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"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." - Sir Joshua Reynolds (paraphrased)

I might be massively over-interpreting today's strip but I wonder if Jeph is planning to ring in some changes and explore some of what an AI's life is like through the eyes of Roko Basilisk. It must be tough being a cop, as Hannelore unintentionally proves in today's strip. Being an AI (therefore likely having perfect recall and being perceived as being an inflexible law-enforcement machine) can only make a difficult job more difficult.

Yeah, and then there's the issue all cops have where people interpret small talk as an investigation!

I'm trying to work out what Roko's nervous smile in panel 2 might mean. She's definitely seen Bubbles' chair but it's hard to tell what she's thinking. I suspect that she's nervous about being in a place where someone who, just very recently was a suspect, is clearly a valued customer and maybe even a friend.

On second thoughts; she's reacting in disbelief about 'unicorns'. It's definitely that. I mean, Roko always sees kitsunes when she sniffs tea!

Oh, BTW, unless the AI have their own police organisation, Roko's badge should look something like this:

I think that Hannelore has suddenly realised that hallucinogenic tea could technically be viewed as an illegal substance or at least potentially so. Is this an idle inquiry or is this a vice bust?

I don't think she'd make that mistake since she seems well versed in legalese even if she isn't a lawyer. I think she's doing this protect Bubbles in case the police aren't just satisfied in taking down Corpse Witch.

Rather than redraw, just mirror. - and correct Bubbles Chair sign - then insert dialogue again.

Or keep and mirror the rest, depending on layout of the Cafe of Doom. I think that might be needed.

The expressions though are priceless.

Ritko might possibly have just been given a clue regarding the identity of the AI tea afficionado by the large combat android sized armchair marked "Bubbles Chair" in the corner. They teach that stuff, obsevation and deduction, in detective school, so I'm told.

Which also means she quite genuinely may have been trying to make conversation, even though on duty and wearing her badge. Tea aroma as opposed to donuts.

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Akima wrote thus : " Besides which, forgiving other people is something you do for yourself, not for them. "

I think that Hannelore has suddenly realised that hallucinogenic tea could technically be viewed as an illegal substance or at least potentially so. Is this an idle inquiry or is this a vice bust?

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs. I'm assuming from Momo's stance on "AI Civil Rights" that there's a presumption that humans and AIs get equal treatment before the law, so even if a statute were passed outlawing tea for AIs, it'd be vulnerable to constitutional challenge on equal protection grounds. To defend it, the government would have to show a valid interest in stopping AIs from sniffing tea, as in you'd need instances of either AIs or humans being harmed by it. From what we've seen, there would be no such instances.

The viewpoint of panel 2 is just different, in panel 2 we are are on Hanners side of the counter, looking at the shop, and Hanelore has turned and moved bit. In all other panels we are on the other side, like customers.

One Orbital Lawyer Strike for the officer with the broken social interaction module ... !

« Last Edit: 27 Feb 2017, 13:26 by Case »

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"Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter" - Rosa Luxemburg"The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you're a member of the Dunning-Kruger club. People miss that." - David Dunning

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs.

Depends on what's in the tea. Suppose cats become more sentient, and one would serve catnip tea. It might be illegal to serve to cats as they would observe the effects, but would be fine to humans. Or at least it would mean that cats can't drive afterwards.

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs.

The legality of teas and tisanes very much depends on what plants (or which fungi) they're made from.

Given the fact that Coffee of Doom is selling tea alongside its coffee, that tells me that, simply by applying Occam's Razor, the tea supplied is totally above board.

The problem here is that people are assuming that what Bubbles is seeing is the same as a human hallucination. However, with an AI its more like a mass spectrometer. Some sensor is detecting the particles from the tea, analysing it and interpreting that information in a unique manner. Bear in mind the man who invented AI, Hannerdad is not the most conventional of people and instead of some cold analytical printout, we see a whimsical interpretation of that information.

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Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs.

Depends on what's in the tea. Suppose cats become more sentient, and one would serve catnip tea. It might be illegal to serve to cats as they would observe the effects, but would be fine to humans. Or at least it would mean that cats can't drive afterwards.

Should cats ever gain sapience ('sentience' is "the ability to feel, perceive or experience subjectively" - as far as we know, cats already have that faculty), the intoxication level of our murderous sociopathic furry friends would be the least of our worries.

I like cats at least as much as the next guy (suggestive pointing @ avatar) - but methinks that one brand of weaponized self-replicating cognitive routines is more than enough for this little planet of ours, no?

(Not the least because it's pretty obvious what would happen once sapient cats inevitably arrive at the same conclusion ... "You provide-food, will-not-become food. Be good-human-friendlypliable, not plaything-preything. Petting will-commence-now. Purr! Purr!")

« Last Edit: 27 Feb 2017, 14:25 by Case »

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"Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter" - Rosa Luxemburg"The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you're a member of the Dunning-Kruger club. People miss that." - David Dunning

I think that Hannelore has suddenly realised that hallucinogenic tea could technically be viewed as an illegal substance or at least potentially so. Is this an idle inquiry or is this a vice bust?

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs. I'm assuming from Momo's stance on "AI Civil Rights" that there's a presumption that humans and AIs get equal treatment before the law, so even if a statute were passed outlawing tea for AIs, it'd be vulnerable to constitutional challenge on equal protection grounds. To defend it, the government would have to show a valid interest in stopping AIs from sniffing tea, as in you'd need instances of either AIs or humans being harmed by it. From what we've seen, there would be no such instances.

That and tea manufacturers have the kind of lobbying power to keep their product legal so even if some misguided social crusader tried to ban tea because of hallucinogenic effects on AIs the people at Lipton would kill that bill in Congress.

I think that Hannelore has suddenly realised that hallucinogenic tea could technically be viewed as an illegal substance or at least potentially so. Is this an idle inquiry or is this a vice bust?

Given that tea is legal for humans, the default assumption is that it'd be legal for AIs. I'm assuming from Momo's stance on "AI Civil Rights" that there's a presumption that humans and AIs get equal treatment before the law, so even if a statute were passed outlawing tea for AIs, it'd be vulnerable to constitutional challenge on equal protection grounds. To defend it, the government would have to show a valid interest in stopping AIs from sniffing tea, as in you'd need instances of either AIs or humans being harmed by it. From what we've seen, there would be no such instances.

That and tea manufacturers have the kind of lobbying power to keep their product legal so even if some misguided social crusader tried to ban tea because of hallucinogenic effects on AIs the people at Lipton would kill that bill in Congress.

You can't stop Big Tea. Ever.

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Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

That's just it, isn't it? Bubbles and Roko are sides of the same coin, one not particularly liked by the wider AI community. Bubbles is looked down upon because she was an AI that decided to volunteer and serve in the military, something that AI like Momo believe that no AI should be doing. At the same time, Roko is an AI policing the AI community, she's a visible reminder that there are criminal AI, that drag down the name of the AI community.

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Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

All she's probably heard about Roko comes from Faye and Bubbles, so its probably a one-sided picture, but still Hanners could have given Roko the benefit of the doubt, especially considering she's just let her friends slide on several crimes.

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Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

In the case of Bubbles we know her body was built to detect NBC weapons and probably explosives as well. The tannins in tea are usually thought of as harmless, but don't forget the song "Oh tannin bomb".

I'm still going with the theory that military and police grade AI chassis have a mass spectrometer built-in. In the case of the police - detecting trace evidence, toxicology and arson would be the ones off the top of my head.

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Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

All she's probably heard about Roko comes from Faye and Bubbles, so its probably a one-sided picture, but still Hanners could have given Roko the benefit of the doubt, especially considering she's just let her friends slide on several crimes.

Uhhh....ok. If we're gonna go down that mental track, how can Hannelore be blamed? Knowing what she knows about Faye and Bubbles(and what they've been up to), and considering THEY are her friends, why would she speak to a cop, ANY cop about them? ~_^

It seems like a lot of people are blaming her for not just using some random mind reading powers on Officer Basilisk, going "O! Ok, officer. Your intentions are on the level. Let's be friends."

In her situation, an Officer comes in asking her about Bubbles. She doesn't know where such a conversation will lead or if something can accidently slip that can be used against Faye or Bubble. So, she did the only thing she can to protect her friends until she can get confirmation from them that Basi, is on the up and up. If that means freezing out an unknown entity, for now. So, be it! Remember, folks: She doesn't have all the info that we the readers have.

/sigh...idk, seems a bit odd to me to expect anything else from her other than the safest, most prudent action available to her right now.

I'm sure as heck not. That is *EXACTLY* the way you handle a police officer asking questions whose answers bear on any of your friends. Go Hanners! This is either a case of incredibly good instincts, or she has received specific warnings/lessons and paid attention to them.

I'm still going with the theory that military and police grade AI chassis have a mass spectrometer built-in. In the case of the police - detecting trace evidence, toxicology and arson would be the ones off the top of my head.

All she's probably heard about Roko comes from Faye and Bubbles, so its probably a one-sided picture, but still Hanners could have given Roko the benefit of the doubt, especially considering she's just let her friends slide on several crimes.

Honestly, I don't disagree with Hannelore's behavior on this one. Maybe she was just trying to make conversation, but there are many instances of cops having a 'casual conversation' actually looking for information. And multiple instances have shown that talking to a cop, even if you've done nothing wrong, is always a risk.